Monday, March 09, 2015

Charter - playing by the rules

Speaking of some charters having an unfair advantage because they don't play by the same rules, there are some cases in which the opposite might be true, as this email from a friend highlights:

I know of at least three special ed families (one with severe issues who really needed an LD school) who were counseled out of DC schools by their Principals to go to a nearby charter schools - in one case to a brand new, one-month-old charter. In all the cases, the families qualified for Free Lunch and English was not their home language.

From what I have seen, charters have been accused for a decade of shortchanging special ed kids and have learned to be careful and dutiful in the area of special ed - in fact, I think charters have truly committed to special ed as part of their mission.

I am interested if someone dug deeper they would find counseling the other way - District employees counseling families to go to charters.